Fortune Arterial - Erika bite Kohei

Sunday, October 17, 2010

Fortune Arterial Akai Yakusoku


Kohei Hasekura has transferred schools so many times due to his father's work that he has stopped trying to keep track of them all, so when he finally gets a choice of his own he opts for Shuchikan Academy, a boarding school out on a peripheral Japanese island that he had once briefly stayed at several years ago. There he meets a pair of girls he knew as a youth and quickly gets associated with several classmates, including the eccentric Student Council. Something odd happens when he comes into contact with vice-president Erika Sendo, however, which rattles her to the core and leaves Kohei perplexed. Much more disturbing for Kohei, though, is the discovery that a vampire may be on the prowl at school, and it's someone he's already met.



Yeah, this is yet another adult visual novel adaptation. It spends its first episode introducing the premise and all of the key players, with revelations in the prologue and at the end that vampires may be involved, and that's about all it does. Except for the vampire angle, everything which transpires here is rigidly formulaic, including a cast of girls (read: potential love interests) who could have been taken from almost any random visual novel or ero game. The same applies to the building and character designs, too, which look good but also absolutely typical for this type of series. The way vampirism is going to fit into the picture could be a bit intriguing and may serve as an initial hook, as these are vampires who apparently have no difficulty walking around in daylight, but this offering from developer August and producers ZEXCS and Feel has yet to show anything that will entice those who are not already fans of this style of series to keep watching.

Another day, another adult game, transformed into an anime. Eroge adaptations are now ubiquitous enough that they have to be treated like shonen action series: namely you have to start ignoring the broad outlines, since they're generally the same, and start enjoying the variation in details. Taken that way, Fortune Arterial isn't half bad. If you're into this sort of thing. The broad outline: Kouhei Hasekura has been moving all his life. He's never had a lasting friendship, much less a meaningful romance. Which is why he's happy to be moving to a new school, this one with a dorm. A dorm means no more moving. A dorm also means living with a slew of girls. There's student council vice-president Erika Sendou, who might be a vampire; possible nun-in-training Shiro Togi; twin childhood friends Haruna and Kanade Yuuki; and probably several more.

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